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Carna     Another day begins in Emblem city, the same way it always does. The illumination provided by the Temple of Phoebe, turning the night into a spectacle of illumination that seems to come from within the stones themselves, falls second to the blue fire that creeps up over whatever passes for a horizon. In time, that flame will continue to build and ascend in the sky, until the cobalt sun rises up along its usual arc. Right on time, as measured by a great clock and all the timers and watches and other time pieces that are synched up with it (which is all of them), at 00:00:01. From now until 23:59:59, when it falls dark again, and everyone should be at home, and Emblem City stands still for its nightly 'maintenance period', the whole day is open and free. The sky's the limit, figuratively if not literally!

    What will today bring? What new thing will people try out? What will be learned and experienced? Who will they meet? What will they accomplish? The noble souls who are the residents of Emblem City have all the time in the world to find out. Maybe even forever.

    Huge magical (or maybe holographic?) billboards come to life all over the city, springing up from projectors inset in buildings or that hover in the air, providing information on the newest games, the newest technology, the scores on the latest competitions, recommended reading at the Blue Tower, the weather in various districts and neighborhoods (which will change throughout the day as people decide what type of weather they want over their own home), and more.

    Walking up to any of them (or flying to the airborne ones, or teleporting to them, or...) of course allows for more targeted inquiries, maps, placing orders for things one may desire, and of course there's the same sort of projectors inside any home whose resident desires them!

    Defining features of Emblem City certainly includes many conveniences!

    Souls awaken from their rest period, ever brief and uneventful, whether it be a magic circle, a cryogenic pod, a hovering bed, or even just a mat on the floor. The appearance doesn't matter. Even 'nothing at all,' just wake up where you went to stand'. All that matters is everyone starts the day fresh and alert and ready to start the day anew!

    What does one expect of a city of dead people, after all? Grogginess? They're not sleeping! Just... Resting. For some reason. Starting at 23:59:59 exactly.

    Every day.

    However, right from the start, there is something different going on. It does not take long for those who reside at or near the Temple of Phoebe to begin their days, to go to worship, or to perform their function of helping others. But when those earliest arrive to prepare the huge community 'breakfast' banquet that is served every day, they come across several shocking things that ripple through the news. The first is the giant-sized molten foot prints trailing from the base of the statue of Phoebe, indoors to the massive cathedral, and then back out after a circuit of the interior. They continue to burn without sign of cooling long into the morning. 'A miracle' many say, as they gather at the foot of the statue steadily as time gathers on, to pray and sing praises and prepare simple meals, Phoebe's favored, rather than the extravagant fare that is typical of mornings at the temple.

    What is the meaning of this 'miracle'? And why now?
Dorian Pavus     Gil's house isn't by the temple, no, but he does have to pass it at least once on his way to work. No, he doesn't HAVE to, that's true. But he wants to make certain all the devices that maintain this paradise are working. He has pushed away the strange dreams and waking memories to focus on that. Something about the billboards, though... maybe they need to be checked out...

    As he leaves his abode, though, the news will reach him -- the statue has walked? Or it appears to have, anyway. This is strange. Gil diverts his progress from the workshop to the temple. Just to look around, he tells himself. This is news, and something about it seems weird, given the strange dreams that haunted him.
Kushiko The young girl known as Soupi may not have been a direct servant of Phoebe, but what Phoebe represented, what she was known for was something that the young girl was very much adherent of. Any of the potential stressors like say, getting corrected for her own impulsive act the 'day before' have been forgotten.

She simply comes to in her bed, stretching awake and looking to the Selene who attended her needs where she lived. A bit of a surrogate motherly figure who occasionally helped with her cooking experiences at times. This time, it was croissants and other little breaded things she made to possibly share with others. She felt an interest to go to the Temple of Phoebe today, as her thoughts were drawn there for some inexplicable reason.

But first, as Titania darted and flitted about, she was reminded to place an order for some more cooking supplies to be brought to her house for later. After all, one cannot focus solely on breakfast! ... even if it was technically not needed, she liked the way things could taste, instilling a lovely sense of happiness or putting a smile on someone's face. Cookies. Yes, that would be it. Snickerdoodles!

In either event, it's because of this interest to come to the Temple of Phoebe that she is among those who, alarmingly first hears--then sees--what has become a buzzing scrap of news, her and Titania practically zooming there almost immediately. The talk of miracle, the potential of Phoebe maybe even coming among them plastering an utterly infectious smile on her face as she joins others in song with zealousness!~
Leyanne Paird doesn't initially attend the temple, but as the rumour mill grinds, it reaches her attention that there's something unusual occuring. The talk of a miracle and hushed whispers of burning footprints have her uneasy.

And so it is that Paird steps back inside her workshop and gets to work building something. Whatever it is involves several hot riveting guns and a fusion furnace.

By around 10am, one can hear sounds coming from her workshop: A loud, repetitive pneumatic 'taktaktak' sound, followed by chuckling.
Tomoe Jeci had had a heck of a time ofd it she'd been dragged off yet again, which was honest,y nbothing new to those in power in the city. If anything it was expected. She just kept sticking her nose where she should not and getting her mind more scrmabled than normal for her troubles. Still as she 'wakes' again? She's in good spirits she's going to the temple breakfast, as why not she should get social, right.

Then it's something she didn't expect there were signs of 'a miracle' of some trail of burning footprints at the base of the stature.

"What the?"

the dark skined redhead takes a look at the footprints with her golden eyes before she takes note of a few people she does know here it's odd, very odd.."

She catches site of Soupi as she arrived and she thought she spotted Gil in the thick of thigns as well...
Count Kord     Aepicus shows up to the ruckus, and looks around warily. He remembers... a hooded figure, and him saving them from... something. He's been quiet since the day he got pacified, since the day they tried to wipe his memory. The traumatic moment sticks to his mind like a tar that can't escape. But the fact that this feels like the exact same day as the last has him questioning his sanity, and he had woken up in the same place as normal. Was it all real?

    Nevertheless, he gravitates to the disturbance at the Temple to see what the fuss is all about. He has a gentle frown on his face, as usual.
Carna     The PRAYER System permits many unusual powers. 'Gigantification' plus 'bodily transmutation' could produce someone who can turn their feet to flames and melt the floor as a giant. However, doing so unnoticed by the Selenes, let alone leaving enduring flaming foot prints that do not cool over time, seems l ike such an extremely specific ability that probably would not have been granted since evading the Selenes benefits no one, that it lends credence to the rumors and beliefs spreading like wildfire that Phoebe herself may have returned in some form.

    The inside of the cathedral seems to be closed off for now. Maybe due to the damage caused. Maybe for some other reason. But when Soupi arrived, she may have overheard some priestesses of Phoebe being told 'not to discuss the letters until their meaning could be discerned'. What letters?

    Aside from the damage to the ground, there does not SEEM to be anything out of place. And as Selenes keep dancing about anxiously, trying to find an opening to repair the damage that is being jealously protected by the faithful, it seems perhaps only another noble soul like Gil could get close enough to start affecting repairs. But if he tried, he'd likely get the same treatment as the Selenes. Maybe figuring out why they are still burning could be a good first step.

    The noise coming from Paird's workshop is quite cacaphonous, though that's probably not unusual. Emblem City is a big place, and as much as it has tranquil, quiet areas, even personalized sound fields that block unwanted noise and produce whatever is desired, like a one-person sound track, there is also generally plenty of noise as well, from people doing their own thing. Coeus's Workshop is especially infamous in that regard due to all the crazy whatsits being worked upon there. However, even Paird's 'co-workers' (and Gil's for that matter) don't seem to know what's up exactly and attempts to gain more information from the news turns up frustratingly few details.

    It's not being covered up or anything (why would it be? It's not like Emblem City has secrets to keep from anyone), but there just isn't much known about it, and people gathering information are flooding any discussion channels with a mix of increasingly embellished tales, religious proclamations, skepticism, and good-natured (if tiresomely familiar) internet forum-style arguing. Maybe someone like Paird has to get the scoop with a fly-by of the usually ground-restricted location. Most of the time thye don't want fliers around there because they don't want to risk someone smashing up the temple by accident. Dare she risk it!?

    Jeci spots a couple people she might know (or at least know of). But all around her in the crowd, the murmuring of those standing on the side-lines rather than out praying and kneeling and bowing before terrain damage provides a general gist of the situation. It seems that either the giant statue of Phoebe stepped down from her pedestal and walked around during the night, and then returned, or someone has played a very elaborate hoax. "Hey, I heard there's some kind of message in big flaming letters inside the Temple." one person mutters, among all the other voices. Another responds, "Seriously? What did it say?" "I don't know. They aren't letting anyone but their clergy and such inside. If it's a prophecy, then like usual they'll probably want to take time to 'interpret' it." "Who put them in charge of that anyway?" "Phoebe." "Oh, right."

    Aepicus is likely to here similar (or the same) conversations. The faithful clustered around a statue and some vandalism, the skeptics and onlookers looking on, and those undecided just trying to figure out what happened. Among them is a figure in a hoodie, hands in the pockets of their baggy pants.
Dorian Pavus     That does seem like a good place to start, Gil figures. But can he get close enough to any of the footsteps? Is the crowd too thick? Do they even trust him? He IS one of those who work on the many devices that keep the population quiescent.

    But, if he CAN manage to get close enough to one of the burning footprints, he'll crouch down near it -- not close enough to burn himself -- but close enough to examine it. Firthe uses his own senses -- can he see anything in the print, what does the fire smell like, how hot is it burning? And then he'll turn to his trusty scanning diagnostic-type device, that he's almost never without.

    It's a small thing, just a pocket scanner (similar to a medical tricorder probably, with the detachable hand-set thing). However, it's probably too small to give him really super in-depth information, but it should give him some kind of idea of what's going on. Of course, all this will depend on him being able to get close to a footprint.

    Jeci may indeed see him trying to get closer to the source of the issue. He's the scientist guy after all, he's expected to poke his nose into something he may or may not have any business sticking his nose into. That might be why he has a modicum of trust with those in charge of this place, though -- just because he sticks his nose into things doesn't mean he's prepared to blow a case wide open!
Kushiko The young girl doesn't need to get into the cathedral itself, she's just as content to sway and sing and give praise outside near the statue! Sometimes sharing a croissant here and there for those who might ask. Even as a certain memory niggles at her brain just so.

Jeci. Jeci reminds her. Jeci was there, wasn't she, when she saw that face of shadow?

Her smile falters--but only for a flash. Still, she turns once she sees some of the others here; maybe she might go and get curious with the letters in the temple. Gil she addresses first, looking a little apologetic. "Isn't it amazing?" she asks of him. "They won't let anyone in, but being out here, being witness to this miracle is wonderful. Some people think Phoebe may have come back to us!" If she has noticed, if she has realized what Gil's doing, she doesn't let it show.

Can't let anything show~
Leyanne While building what turns out to be a long cannon that fires red-hot rivets and mounting it to the plane, Paird trawls for rumours. Finding none - but lots of confusion - she thinks on the matter a little more, before opening the doors and extending the launch rails. A hiss of steam and the machine is in the air, climbing rapidly because she might have let it go before the accumulators were quite up to pressure. The leaves in the tailgear are for decoration, honest.

Once sufficient airspeed and altitude have been gained, the pilot-engineer turns towards the temple of Phoebe to investigate. Once there, she starts circling, peering down over the dipped wing...
Count Kord     Aepicus ignores the hub-bub about miracles. He's got no interest in the people running the puppet show, only the shape and color of the strings. He looks past everyone else and spots someone in a hoodie... and hesitates, for a second. It couldn't possibly be that simple, he thinks to himself. So he decides not to be too obvious about. He steps up as if to check out what everyone is talking about, just so he can cant his head and get a look at the person in the hoodie, to see if it's anyone he recognizes.

    He wouldn't want to draw the attention of the Selenes. They're... disturbing to interact with, a view right into a dystopian scifi novel.
Tomoe There are a lot of people talking today and Jeci wonder what's relly going on here. She takes in what the people are saying.

"Message in the temple? Really?" She seems curious now if there's a message in teh temple she's got to see it and now Jeci will start looking for a way in. Seeming to see if there's a movment of people she can use to slip by and getting inyto the temple. If there's a message she fully intends to see itone way or another. The info she gets from teh crowd spurs her on and away she goes attempting to find a way inside.
Carna     The stone is somehow been melted and deformed by the heat, and now remains in a super-heated-but-solid state. No doubt, many others before him have inspected it for obvious details. The smell is not much to speak of. Perhaps a steam-like quality. They're in the afterlife after all. Expecting normal chemical reactions from whatever everything is made out of might be stretching things a little too far. It is burning hot enough to dissuade people from getting closer than a few feet at most, but it is doubtful their souls will suffer any sort of lasting damage from it if one wished to press themselves. A few, overcome by their fervor actually threw themselves onto the burning foot prints and writhed in some sort of fugue state as they suffered burns, until others nearby pulled them away. Less reckless ones allowed their hands or lips to be burned.

    Phoebe is many things. She is a protector, a mother, a hero, a slayer of evil, lady justice, prosperity through empathy, a purveyor of prophecy, and also a veritable goddess of fire. By receiving these burns, they might feel they are becoming closer to their matron. But the end result is that they are messing themselves up for no good reason.

    And none of them have the diagnostic equipment that Gil has.
Carna     Soupi's baked goods are accepted happily as always. The bowls of rice meal, and other simple foods laid out steaming all around the foot of the statue. There's a sort of beef stock soup with sliced beef and chicken being provided to the crowd as well, by various priestesses. Pho is one of the 'traditional meals' associated with Phoebe. Meant for celebrations and auspicious events, it's a delicious replacement for the banquets that are usually held here. The much blander food, representing spiritual purity and humility, is being offered sacrificially for Phoebe herself (or her statue).

    "It has been so long! Many of those here had not even joined Emblem City when last she walked!" one girl of similar age to Soupi responds. "I can't wait!" she looks up at the statue with hope-filled eyes, practically sparkling with excitement. It's like they all expect the statue to come to life at any moment, or to provide some sign, some subtle hint that she is pleased.

    In fact... Doesn't it appear as though the statue is starting to glow in several places? Maybe it's a trick of the cobalt sun's light, but it definitely looks like pockets of illumination are forming inside the statue and spreading out gradually like veins of white fire!

    The other girl cries out in amazement, just as many others notice as well.
Carna     Paird may notice along her flight path that there are erratic weather forecasts on the news, as various local weather systems are disrupted. What the heck? Some kind of malfunction? Has anything even approaching a technical malfunction happened before? Oddly enough... Even if it seems like the answer should be 'no'... She might recall some sort of technical malfunction just... Yesterday was it? With the billboards?

    It's a highly disorienting moment that may lead her to fly astray, and while she may have gone out looking for more info about the temple, her advantageous position as the only person daring to fly in a no-fly area, may afford her a view of a huge nimbus of storm clouds flashing with crimson lightning flooding in from the distance, the huge expanse of empty space, clouds, and 'heavenly-looking' area surrounding Emblem City and stretching out into forever. Inside that huge cloud bank of black and red, during the lighting flashes, it looks as though a truly titanic figure is silhouetted within.

    Despite the unfathomable distances, it seems the storm, and that giant, are coming closer very quickly.

    That is very abnormal.
Carna     Moments before the statue starts glowing, the hoodie-wearing figure moves one hand around in their pocket, seemingly gripping something or... Manipulating something. A weapon maybe? Is someone about to go all suicide bomber in the land of the dead!? Either way, as the True Believers go crazy about the glowing statue, the light and heat continue to build and build. But the marble recreation of Phoebe does not come to life.

    It explodes. Ruptures form and flames pour outwards everywhere, out of her stomach, out of her legs and back, out of her face. There are shocked cries, wails of horror, others of amazement - thinking not that this is defacement, but the prelude to Phoebe emerging. But something even more disturbing than all of this happens, as the PRAYER System seems to begin failing. People with powers of flight begin to fall out of the sky like rocks. People expecting to teleport find themselves going nowhere, or tumbling out of phase. Others using other powers find them no longer working. Appearances flicker and change like there's two pieces of film overlapping and one of them is trying to overtake the other.

    In short, there is total pandemonium.
Carna     Jeci is one of those with a clear view in what happens next, due to her efforts to push through and gte closer to the temple. There are secondary explosions moments after the statue beings to burn, tearing open the face of the Temple of Phoebe, and exposing its interior. Among the burning wreckage and destroyed masonry and falling crystal panes, inside, emblazoned upon the far wall of the main worship area, in three-hundred feet tall burning letters, are the words: THEY LIE. ESCAPE.

    She is going to have to dodge pieces of the buildings to avoid harm, but with powers failing all around, her very body flickering back and forth between this one and some... OTHER one... Does she have the ability to move that fast anymore!?
Leyanne Paird fights the winds for several seconds, her reactions slowed just a little by a ghost of recollection. The aircraft skims over rooftops for a few moments before regaining altitude. The whole aircraft twitches as Paird sees the giant silhouetted in the clouds. #Anyone on this band?# She calls. #We have... something odd. Giant figure appears coming this way. And... oh. Uh that's not good....# An alarm is audible before she cuts out.

In the cockpit of the flying machine, several systems are starting to fail. THe navigation system is starting to spew nonsense. The controls are suddenly much heavier, and the engines are beginning to fail. Several components are PRAYER reinforced, are now being pushed way beyond there limits and failing. There's a bang and the aircraft starts trailing smoke.

#Uhh... mayday, mayday, I am going down. Multiple system failures.#

Muttering a brief prayer, Paird turns the aircraft out away from the city itself, then reaches down and yanks the eject handle.
Count Kord     As the Prayer system flickers and the world starts to fall apart in a way, Aepicus looks down at himself and realizes something about the narrative that had been kept from him. His form flickers, but the only consistency is that... well, everything aesthetic is what is different, not his abilities, or his tail... and he has claws, apparently. Did he wish for those to be /removed/? He looks startled for a second, but then he turns to take advantage of the chaos, and approaches the figure in the hoodie...

    And reaches to grab him by the shoulder. "Did you do that?" he hisses, "What is going on?" Even his own accent startles him, as the heavy faux Romanian tones of his homeland are a great deal more pronounced than the way he speaks due to Prayer.

    His grip on his own identity unravels a little today.
Dorian Pavus     "Perhaps so," Gil answers Soupi, looking at the readings on his scanner/diagnostic device. He doesn't sound distracted, though he isn't looking at her directly. "If so, her return could bode good or ill for us. Burning footprints aren't exactly how I'd reassure my flock that 'all is well'. I'd be more likely to leave such things as a warning to the unfaithful." But ARE there any 'unfaithful' here in this world? It's not a question he asks, but it doesn't really need to be.

    The readings are interpreted, and Gil's mouth twists in a bit of a disappointed look. Somewhere between 'I'm disappointed' and 'I expected that'. Though he isn't about to just blurt out that these burning footprints aren't what they seem. He needs to talk to the PROPER person about it. But that will come later. For now? The footprints themselves. "Hm. Maybe I can..." He'll need to poke at the footprints, but right now he doesn't have any of his tools. They're at the workshop. He stands up then, wondering if he can get his tools and then get back in time. He hasn't seen these flaming letters, but they're not letting people in yet, so...

    Gil's thoughts are broken into by someone in the crowd to reaches to the footprints. "Stop that," he intones, pulling the person's hand back. "This world is not made for you to hurt yourself." Suddenly the cry of surprise draws his gaze up, and he looks in the direction everyone else is. And his eyes go wide at the glowing statue. But only for a moment. What is going on?!

    And that doesn't appear to be the end of all of the problems, either. Suddenly the statue EXPLODES! Gil ducks, hoping to avoid any flying debris. And that seems to be the trigger for... even more things starting to go wrong.

    The world. It's ''falling down''.

    And not just the world. The people. Gil looks at his hands, seeing someone else there for a moment. An outfit of archaic leather. And... a ring on the smallest finger of his right hand. Blue, with a symbol in place of a gem... a symbol that resembles the face of a clock. But instead of hands, a strange symbol that resembles a trident. And somehow he KNOWS that ring. He knows it. And something settles in his heart -- sadness, crushing and oppressive.

    But in the next instant it's gone...

    "What's... happening...?" He sounds FRIGHTENED, for once...
Kushiko Soupi nods; not just to the girl she's talking to, but to Gil's assessment. She does her best to put on a nice, pleasent face, watching and seeming to turn her face to look around her--wait, what was that?

Excitement gives way to something more terrible than anything else.

Really, before all this she was /happy/. She could be around people, sharing in the foods, so delicious, talking excitedly with another girl nearby, oohing and aaahing right along with her.

        <Something's not right>

She screams without thinking, the amazement bleeding into shock and horror as the statue explodes--the flicker is... strange, to put it nicely. Her pure, gentle face seems to bleed into something else. Scars around her eye, blackened and making a loose circle unfolding out along her right temple, some skin lesioning raised before subsuming back into normal flesh. Her eyes glower--one side, then the other. Implanted cybernetics.

... seems she wasn't too different from her OTHER self. Yet as all this goes on, the mechafairy still somehow /works/, just enough, but with the powers she has from PRAYER not working, it acts instinctively. Quickly becoming as large as a regular person, wings flitting and moving to protect, no, to pick up and carry Soupi from this place.

And yet, as the fairy queen moves, she spots that person again. And this time, no amount of her mind resisting can stop it. She knows that person--why, why were they here? She looks--she sees, she /feels/ something, touching her face. The scar. She doesn't see the flaming letters, but only because Titania, that protective mechafairy, will not see her to harm while it still can move.
Tomoe Jeci gets on her way to get in, she wants to see the message, she's got to see it. She has to know what the heck is going on here? the rehead woman move in using the crowd as cover. She gets in closer and closer. She dances through the crowxc alkmost as she gets cloer and closer the explosions go off and she's forced to leap back and lands in a crouch.

"What in the..."

She stares up at the burning words.

"They lie? Escape?"

More wreckage is falling and her powers of flight fail her, she turns to run, she shift not htinking as she end sup working as she goes to leap on a falling bit of wrekcing then kicks off rolls nd keeps oing using wreckage or even just the terrain as her way out even as he powers haver faield she doesn't even think about it till she keeps moving like this. The blockages for others are but a road to Jeci.
Carna     Everything is happening at once. But among all the other aspects of chaos and destruction, yet another and even more imposing intercedes. As Aepicus grabs the hooded figure, they turn, their face just a shadowed emptiness, with a pair of glowing circles for eyes hovering in it, cartoonishly. They grab Aepicus's shoulders with massless hands, and say in a modulated, distorted voice. "WAKE. UP."

    Then a torrent of flames far surpassing any of the explosions so far lances out from the vast distance, a spear of light and heat, layers of fire wrapping around each other, coiling into a weapon.

    And as Selenes scramble to perform damage control, to try to put out fires and begin repairs, physically evacuating those who can not escape, some flying vehicles to rescue falling pilots and people suddenly without any powers, some usher Gil towards the broken statue as though they expect him to fix it.

    And the blade of flame illuminates all, as it is held high in the grasp of the titanic Phoebe. A figure of fury and beauty and power...

    Glowing eyes like miniature suns, that burn to look upon as the blue fireball in the sky does not, watch as fleeing figures scatter before her, and True Believers fall down in supplication. Then she brings the continent-sized blade swinging down towards her own temple, trailing an ocean of undying wrath.

    TO BE CONTINUED...